


choose rest

by inianuae



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), background Flayn, background Marianne von Edmund, look I love them too but it was getting crowded, mention of blood and medical emergencies but nothing graphic, no beta we die like Glenn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29184498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inianuae/pseuds/inianuae
Summary: After a long brutal night working in the field infirmary, Manuela tries to offer her former medical students some words of wisdom, but they're too punchy to make much use of it.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	choose rest

“Well, kids—” Manuela began, peeling off her bloody operating smock, tossing it in a heap next to the pile of laundry bags behind the infirmary tent, and pulling a well-loved flask out of Goddess-knew-where.

“We’re not kids any more, Manuela,” Dorothea cut in, pushing her sweaty brown hair off of her forehead and sinking exhaustedly onto her usual perch, a cask propped against a stack of empty glassware crates with an old horse blanket folded on top.

Manuela took a long pull of brandy before wordlessly passing the flask to Dorothea, who raised it in salute with a wry tilt of her lips before taking a swig herself. “ _Well, kids,_ I think it’s time I teach you an old prayer from the opera, after a night like this—”

Linhardt pushed his way out of the tent flap, squinted a little, and sighed. “Marianne and Flayn are on for the next shift. If you’ll _excuse_ me, I have a very important appointment with a pillow before they call me back in to do anything.”

“Sure. A pillow. You mean a gross sack of laundry,” Hapi grinned, finishing up at the wash station. She’d been up to her elbows in gore only minutes ago, but she was already rummaging in one of the shelves for her stash of snacks. It was important to keep a routine, after all.

Linhardt shrugged gamely, and plopped himself down on it. “It’s soft.”

“—an old prayer from the _opera_ , which goes—”

Mercedes nudged her way past her old teacher with a gentle hand at her shoulder, and smiled encouragingly before stumbling into a supply barrel. She took that cue to have an abrupt seat on a big roll of spare tent canvas, smoothing her robes out as she arranged herself. Night had long since closed across the army's encampment, and most of the campfires were dying down. It was well past moonset, and the day had been long enough filling their field clinic with soldiers even before they’d come on shift.

“— _ahem_. As I was saying, _kids_ , on a night like this, I always think of an old prayer from the opera—”

Linhardt, already prone in a pile of mostly-clean linens, popped one eye open. “Out with it, Manuela.”

“We’re in the mouth of the wolf…” the infirmary master intoned, with proper dramatic firmness. She raised her eyebrows at her onetime understudy to cue the response.

“…and may the wolf die,” Dorothea enunciated, with years of practice, her posture un-slumping on reflex. “Sorry, Happyface.” She held out the flask, smiling through the grime.

Hapi waved it off, stuffing a stale pastry into her face instead. “I shouldn’t.” She brushed some crumbs off of the front of her robe, shrugged, and passed a sweet bun that had seen better days to Mercedes, who wasted no time popping it into her mouth in one surprisingly-enormous bite. “You know how I get.” She returned the smile, crooked but true, and flexed her bicep with a wink. Dorothea pulled an exaggerated moue and passed the flask back to Manuela instead.

“You know,” piped in Mercedes, thoughtfully. “The priests who took me in years ago taught me a similar prayer, for long nights working at the infirmary.” Everyone got politely quiet, except for Hapi, who was already tearing into something that had been jelly-filled before it was squashed. “Dear Goddess,” she began, voice sweet and earnest as ever. “FUCK.”

There was only a moment of shocked silence before Dorothea tipped over with a peal of laughter. Linhardt sat up, cleared his throat, and added, in his best dry academic tone: “Dear Goddess: fuck.”

Hapi had to grab onto the shelf to keep from crumpling all the way onto the ground, unable to hold back the giggles. “Fuck!” she chimed in between gasps for air.

Manuela emptied her flask in a dramatic, tipped-all-the-way up gulp, and added, with gusto: “Dear Goddess… _fuck_.”

They all gave in at that point, the bottle thoroughly un-stoppered.

Marianne poked her head out of the tent flap, freshly-scrubbed for the next few hours of patients, frowning lightly. “Excuse me.” She was quiet enough that everyone had to pause to listen. “There are people trying to rest in here.” The laughter kicked up again for one last delirious chorus, and Marianne just shook her head and got back to work as it died back down.

Manuela eased herself onto a crate near enough that she could slump up against Dorothea, who put an affectionate arm around her shoulders. “Really, though. I’m very proud of you all.”

Out in the dark, birds began stirring, the horizon staining red with the promise of another dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting a fanfic, so, hi! I'm new at writing fic and definitely new at putting it in public. I just got this image in my head of all the healers/Faith users working together in the war phase, with their old professor still trying to guide them like a tipsy mother hen, and I had to get it down. Anyone who's worked in emergency medicine knows the weird delirium that happens at the end of a rough duty shift, and the bonds and gallows humor that come of it. These poor kids had to turn into grown-ups together so fast, and Manuela worries about them so, and anyway, nothing makes a friend like triage.
> 
> I've got a Dorothea & Hapi, a Hapi & Marianne, and a Dorothea & Ashe on the way for y'all. Look, we needed those supports, okay? And I am apparently fully trash for this game at this point.


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